Forming Your Own eBusiness - Part Two: How to Register and Set Up Your Business

Welcome back to the second half of our two-part article tutorial on forming your own eBusiness. In part one, we talked about forming the idea, gathering up your resources and brainstorming for that winning company title. If you haven’t checked out the post already… I highly recommend that you go back and read up on the strategy portion of this lesson.

Now that we have our corporate strategy set up and organized, we need to talk about the real “nitty gritty” details of how exactly to form your business. Everybody talks about it, but it seems like something that is so difficult to do that many people don’t even try! Not the case. Starting a business on the internet, an eBusiness if you will, is one of the more simple processes out there. All we really need is some legal protection under an LLC or an S-Corporation to start off; then, we should set up some financial agreements to lock in our business security. Let’s get to it!

Limited Liability Corporations (LLC.) and S-Corporations (Inc.)

One of the most daunting tasks in operating an eBusiness online is choosing between the two types of corporate structure: Limited Liability Corporation (LLC.) or S-Corporation (Inc.). There are many similarities and differences between the two… but in the long run, the choice is really based on a business-specific case. In the terms of online businesses, you probably won’t want to try out anything but an LLC or an S-Corp for practical reasons… so let’s stick with the two.

There are many examples of both businesses on the internet, and the differences can sometimes be blurred. When you think about a Limited Liability Corporation or S-Corporation, both function as “pass-through” entities for your business. What this basically means is that any taxation for the business can be “passed-through” to their owner’s income statements for legal purposes. This avoids the problem of double-taxation that you would run into with anything else. For Bullish Bankers, we took the LLC. for flexibility and practicality, and became Bullish Bankers LLC. My friend Tyler Cruz (whom many of you know) chose to get an S-Corp for Merendi Networks because of savings on employment taxes among other things.

The Bottom Line Decision:
I recommend Limited Liability Corporations because they are a lot easier to operate. They do not have to be operated by a board of directors like an S-Corp, and also offer flexibility in profit-sharing and a more lax ownership structure. If you would prefer the rigid and set-in-stone rules that come along with massive employment… go with the S-Corp. If you would rather feel your way through it all with a more allowing structure… go with the LLC. You can read more details in this article if you need more information.

Registering Your Corporation

Now that you have selected between an LLC and an S-Corporation… it’s time to go ahead and actually register your business. How much will this cost? Actually, it is only around $100 to do it yourself. The price will vary by state, but in Maryland (where I registered both of my small businesses) it was just $100 for registration filing for life. Not a bad deal for thousands in potential tax savings, eh?

So here are the two routes:

• Hire a Professional: If you are just too lazy to dig around on your State Department website and do the filing yourself (which is ultra-simple), you can always hire someone and pay them fees to do it for you. Sure, this will run you around $200 (double) for the filing costs and the service charge… but it is also a lot easier. I’d recommend using LegalZoom.com to handle this. I have never used them myself, but have heard only positive remarks toward their service.
• Find the Forms and File: This is really very simple to do, and is just a one-form contract. The best way to do anything nowadays is to search through Google. So search for your “State filing an LLC.” or “State filing an S-Corp” and you should find the documents available no problem. Not a lot is required on these forms, just your name, business name, address and a check for the amount required. They will be called the “Articles of Organization” or “Articles of Incorporation”. For an example, see how easy the form for Maryland is!

Filing with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

To save some time, we are going to go ahead and file for an Employee Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. The reasoning behind this is essentially the same reason why individuals carry Social Security Numbers. This is a number that you will need time and time again, so it is better to get it now and get it over with.

Getting an EIN from the IRS is one of the quickest and easiest steps you will make, despite how daunting it seems. It is completely free, and you can apply for an EIN online and get your EIN number almost instantly via email. Then, just print out the forms to have a physical copy or two. You’ll need the EIN if you sign on as an affiliate for any company or if you need to open a bank account, among other things.

Setting Up a Banking Account

Many banks nowadays emphasize small businesses. Because banks function off of deposits and loans… they actually do want your money. Check out your local banks or nationalized chains and ask them about their banking plans for small businesses. You are going to want a bank with checking… and if you are planning on running a lot of transactions you might want to pay a little extra for the flexibility. I use PNC Bank for my operations through both LLCs that I own.

Once you set up a bank, you will have something to link a PayPal account to if you choose to do this. As an online eBusiness, I trust PayPal to handle most of my transactions. Plus, since this is legally separate from your banking account, you will get as many free transactions as you want! This PayPal-Bank combination is pretty standard nowadays, and it is how a lot of us operate. At the very least, you need that bank account to have checking capabilities so you can pay the bills under your company name.

Protecting your Business with Legality

We’re almost done! We’ve got everything from the company registration (takes a month or two to clear) to a bank account to our Employee ID Number from the IRS. All we need at this point, is a few second checks against any potential liability issues that might arise. I would recommend getting together a Privacy Policy and a Terms of Service for every website that you administer under your eBusiness. We need a way to ensure that nothing goes wrong… and if something does, you are protected against it. Writing a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service can be a time-drawn process, but it is well worth it in the long run. You can take a look at the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service from Bullish Bankers LLC. if you need an example of how to correctly write one of these to cover your bases.

Second to the online forms to secure your liability downside, if you are working with partners you should draw up a charter. This is just a simple document that you can write yourself delegating tasks and the corporate structure. We’ll call this a Manager’s Agreement. One thing about the law that many don’t understand, is that you can effectively write anything yourself and have people sign it to be legally bound… so long as they are fully aware of what they are signing and consent to the terms. Get in Microsoft Word and write up a clause… perhaps delegating who is the CEO and who is the HR Representative… perhaps talking about ownership, who owns what % of the business… or even talking about your voting process. You should always draft something like this and have it signed early if you are running a corporation to have everything set before you hit the ground running.

Bottom Line:
Whew! That’s a lot of paperwork, eh? Hopefully, after reading through this two-parter… you realize that starting your own business really isn’t too much work when it all comes down to it. After all, once you get past the initial set up, your business will carry a considerable amount of added weight, and people will downright trust you more. An added bonus to all of this is that you no longer have full liability for loss because of your filing with the government. I’d say it’s a good idea overall.

Hope you enjoyed this lesson on forming your first eBusiness. Feel free to contact me with any questions, or just drop a comment. Oh, and stay bullish on the net!
-The Net Fool

Forming Your Own eBusiness - Part One: The Basics of Starting an Online Business

Welcome to the exclusive two-part series on starting your own online venture! Do you have a brilliant idea that can bring in revenue (and profit!) through the world wide web? Perhaps you already are active on the internet, but want a way to bring everything under one umbrella business for practical and legal purposes?

There are many ways to start thinking about running your own business… and being a business owner is something that will become increasingly popular as the years go by. As the owner of two small businesses, I have been through the process myself, and I would like to help YOU do the same! Don’t let anyone tell you that running a business is difficult, you just need to know where to go and how to organize yourself. Let’s start in with the basics, and then in part two we will cover more specific goals and structure.

Forming an Idea that Works

If you are looking to start a business, what’s the first thing you will need. That’s right… a business idea! It sounds a bit funny, or even a bit obvious, but solidifying your idea will probably be the biggest step you will have to take. As an example, I am going to use Bullish Bankers… which is an online financial research community that I formed with some friends from Penn State University.

It’s one thing to say “okay, I am going to start a financial business online“… but it is entirely different to lay out exactly what you will be doing. Obviously, the point of owning a company is to make money (assuming you are for-profit). Therefore, you will need to first consider your competitive advantage. What do you have to bring to the table? If you are planning on going in direct competition (i.e. doing the exact same thing as another business), you better be more experienced and able than your peer to be able to win. I would prefer to be in a niche like financial services, but have some kind of spin that makes my business unique. That is what we did with Bullish Bankers LLC., and it has worked thus far!

When you are brainstorming your business idea, don’t think solely about what you are doing… make sure that you can be profitable in your space, and that you have some kind of edge over your competition (whether that be uniqueness or execution skills).

What Kind of Business is It?

When thinking about eBusiness, one has to understand that being an “online business” isn’t a classification. In fact, now that so many companies are moving to internet-based revenue streams… it is essential that you understand where you are on the map. Additionally, if you are a business owner… you will need to be able to quickly identify to potential partners, employees and clients exactly what business you are in. For example, if you walk into a bank for a new account and tell them you are an “internet” business… they are going to want more information.

Furthermore, it is important to have a classification for what you do for your own sake. Too many people come up with business plans and think that they can do everything at once. If you are going to focus on selling cars, don’t also try to offer marketing services. Not only will your business industry give your clients a better idea of what exactly you do, but it will help you to keep from over-extending yourself. Staying with your niche industry is always the best way to form and operate a profitable business… don’t try to do too much at once.

Naming Your Business

Coming up with a name for your business is a very important part of your new online venture… but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker if somebody has already chosen the name that you wanted. That being said, I would have to say that the name your company carries will be important in lending authority to your name. I would suggest sitting down with a pen and a notebook to jot down ideas as they come to you. Go ahead and take an hour to come up with some interesting ideas, then pick your favorites. I would suggest using some “trigger” word that would immediately attach the name of your business to what you do. For example, when we selected “Bullish Bankers”… that is a name that immediately brings up the thought of Finance to people in the industry, so it is much easier to get your foot in the door.

Checking to see if your name is available can be a bit tricky. The problem here is the you register your corporation with the State department where you reside… so you will need to check with the State to see if your business name is available. This can be solved relatively easily with a search through Google for something like “California business name availability search.” Try out some combinations, or simply call your State department to figure out if you are in the clear or not.

Recruiting Partners and Stakeholders

Alright, so by now we have the idea, the name and the general business strategy set in stone. All we need right now is a helping hand. Sure, you can opt for what is known as a “sole proprietorship” and go it alone. In this case, ignore this section entirely. However, I would actually recommend that you enter into some kind of partnership among people you know, and people that are interested in the business. We will discuss the actual contractual part in the next part to get things legalized… but for now you should consider recruiting a few partners or private investors that are interested in the success of your idea. Nothing jump-starts a business like a little buying interest to keep you motivated to succeed!

Okay, so we’ve covered the thought-process behind launching your own eBusiness. Now that we have everything in place and ready to go… let’s turn to the second half of this report and start considering how to actually file and register all of your ideas legally. It is important to have everything ready to go before you start… which is a big reason behind why I laid out this “idea machine” technique before actually talking about registering your business.

Do you have that million dollar idea? If so… let’s figure out exactly how to get up and running. Check out part two of this series on forming your own eBusiness, and we’ll continue this lesson to the point where you can legally operate as a business!

-The Net Fool

BloggersBase.com - Get Discovered, Influence and Make Money Online

The following is a sponsored review of the Bloggers Base network, and my opinion on it has not been swayed by virtue of payment in any way.

One of the most asked questions that I get surround the concept of marketing your blog. As the old adage would go, running a successful blog is very much a sense of how much traffic you can get there… and we would want to apply the old 80/20 rule to marketing: 80% marketing, 20% content. As tough as this might be, the marketing side is what really drums up popularity behind a blog… and good writing alone will work more against than for you if you aren’t actively looking for readers.

Understanding that marketing is key can be a great step forward in your plan to dominate the blogosphere… but then the question becomes HOW exactly should you market? Sure, you could pony up and start an advertising campaign to get the word out… but unless your content is also good, you will find yourself in a ditch sooner rather than later. Instead, I would recommend starting to network across other niche blogs that are similar in focus to the one you are trying to run. Reach out to the bigger names and start making as many friends as possible. Before long, you will start to see traffic feeding in left and right.

How do I find similar blogs in my niche?

I have been asked the question “how do I find similar blogs” literally dozens of times more than I would like to have it asked, and the question is usually to use Google or another search tool to organically dig up the best names. However, it has recently come to my attention that there is a better option out there… Bloggers Base!

That’s right, my good friend Dan has come up with what I think is a top-notch idea… and it comes in the form of a new social media network devoted to bloggers. Sure, there are your classic communities like Twitter, Digg and StumbleUpon that have captured a lot of market share… but if you are a bit newer to blogging and DON’T have a network already lined up, it is very very difficult to gain any traction when you start so far down the food chain.

The Problem With Big Networks

When I think about marketing via social media, it usually links back to the classic one-day rally where you will get 1,000s of page views on one “hot” piece of writing… but then never hear from these people again. However, with Bloggers Base you actually get the chance to form a network with other people interested in your content space. Think of this like “LinkedIn” for bloggers!

When Dan first approached me with the possibility of running a review, I realized what a great opportunity this truly is. While it is still in the beta stage, Bloggers Base offers what the “big networks” can’t… and that is a level playing field. When you register for Digg… you are almost forced to make a ploy for the old timers that have a reputation built up in the community if you want to have any degree of success. However, with Bloggers Base, those that write the most will get noticed. Alternatively, even if you don’t wind up with a cash incentive (yes, they give out prizes), you get a new network of friends to leverage later on.

Where the revenue really comes from in blogging…

So, it all get’s back to making money from your blog… right? I am going to assume that most of you are in this because cash is always a nice incentive on the side of getting your name out there. When people ask how to make money from blogging… the answer isn’t to sell ad space or to write a bunch of sponsored posts every month, it is leveraging your network of users for profits over time.

Truth be told, bloggers without a dedicated crew of readers that legitimately care about what you have to say will never be successful. One one hand, Bloggers Base offers you the ability to get massive amounts of traffic to the posts that you write. However, when you really step back and think about it, if you are a top contributor to Bloggers Base you will get much more than the $50 a month that they currently offer to their best authors… you will be getting friends. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that friends lead to more friends.

Once you start the networking cycle, and assuming you continue to put out excellent content on your blog, it is only a matter of time before your blog begins to churn out more and more RSS subscribers every day… sometimes even at alarming rates! Using social media seems to be the next big fad across the internet, so why not hop on the bandwagon before there is no room left to sit down?

Bottom Line: I highly recommend that you all sign up to, or at least check out, BloggersBase.com. It is a tremendous opportunity, and completely FREE! At the very least, creating a profile and making an account will get you another social media network to gain a little bit of backlink-juice to your blog and/or website. Check it out!

-The Net Fool

Double Your RSS Feed Count! Using an Opt-In List to Boost Your Numbers!

One of the “hot ticket” items in blogging is maximizing the amount of RSS readers that you bring in to your website. As unfortunate as it might be… bloggers nowadays are judged much more by the amount of followers that they have, then on actual content quality. Maybe you aren’t a believer in strong RSS numbers, but because other people are looking toward this number for a sense of reputation… we need to find ways to increase this as soon as we can to stay ahead of the curve!

Can you really DOUBLE your RSS count, without “cheating the system?”
Absolutely! But only if you have the right tools at your disposal.

Today, I’m giving you a method that only the best bloggers are using to boost the amount of RSS readers that they bring in. It is unfortunate that only the big boys use tools like these… but it is a very affordable trick that can more than double your RSS subscriber count with relative ease if done correctly. Let’s get to it!

Using an Opt-In List to Boost your RSS

This method starts by considering an alternative method of recording who is and isn’t a “rss reader” of your blog. I know of three methods that directly impact your RSS count, assuming that you are using Feedburner to manage your feeds (if you aren’t, sign up!).

1. Signing up through an RSS Reader
2. Registering to receive email RSS updates
3. “Opting In” to a Blog Newsletter, and being converted to RSS

Not too many people know of the third option, but it can actually jump up your RSS subscriber numbers in a day if you have a list built up and decide to use the option. I know that many bloggers have done this to win RSS competitions and the like… and it is truly a smart way to increase your readership in an alternative way. We are going to discuss option three today, and get you acquainted with Opt-In lists.

Five steps to double your RSS feed count

The following is a five-step process that I have developed to get anyone who is willing to put in the work a much more healthy RSS booking. You can literally double your reader number within a few days easily… and it’s a shame that bloggers don’t take advantage of this method.

Step One: Signing Up for a Newsletter Service
Unfortunately, if you want to run a newsletter service for your blog, it’s not going to be free. The service that I use, and most of the world for that matter, is called Aweber… and it is truly a great service that I have never once regretted buying. For a small monthly fee, you can register for this service and design awesome newsletters, send out weekly blog post updates or even offer digital content exclusively to your readers. If you are planning on being a successful blogger, I want to encourage you to use Aweber sooner rather than later.

Step Two: Setting Up Your Newsletter
Once you have registered with a newsletter service (and I highly recommend a “paid” service here), it’s time to set up your first newsletter. The methodology here might be different depending on which service you use… but through Aweber they guide you through it until you are 100% complete with the setup. Essentially, you need to put together a few things like a welcome note, address, newsletter format and email setup.

Step Three: Creating an Opt-In Landing Page
In order to get people to sign up to your list, we need a landing page. Want an example? Here is one I just set up for Bullish Bankers LLC. Making an attractive landing page can be difficult. Fortunately for me, I purchased a complete package of landing page/website templates that all work together and can make you a handsome profit. You can get this yourself, as it is available online: Turbo Power Graphics. With Turbo Power Graphics, you get 10 awesome corporate identities… everything from an opt-in page, to a sales page, video pitch page and even an Adsense-enabled revenue page. It’s well worth the price tag, and you won’t need to hire a designer… so that is well worth it. The important thing here is to throw in some catchy graphics, and talk like a salesman… make the customer really want to join your newsletter and emphasize that it is free!

Step Four: Syncing Your Newsletter with Your Landing Page
Now that we have a landing “opt in” page set up on your website, you need a way to take hits onto your landing page… and convert them into newsletter subscribers. Log into your newsletter service (AKA Aweber) and make a “web form” that will link users into your list. There are usually a few ways to do this, for example a pop-up message or overlay, but what you probably want to use is the “inline” method as it is the best to work with. Set up your web form to tie into your new list, and grab the HTML coding for the form (typically a “name,” “email” and “submit” form).

You have your web form in HTML format, so now it is as simple as loading up your opt-in page that we have set up… and putting the code somewhere on the page that makes it identifiable. If you are using an “Opt In” page like in my example, then there will be another way to enter on the top. Make sure to switch that coding around with the code given to you from your newsletter (Aweber support will help you do this if you get stuck). I recommend testing all the forms you have on your “Opt In” page right now, just to make sure that it truly will sign users up and you aren’t wasting your time.

Step Five: Let Readers Know About The New Service!
Everything should be good to go at this point… so what to do now? That’s right. Tell somebody about it! You can generate buzz pretty easily, so I would recommend the following: posting about the newsletter on your blog, letting people know in a forum, contacting your blogging buddies asking for their help.

One thing that I absolutely recommend is having some kind of digital download. People need an incentive to subscribe, so be sure to offer them a custom eBook or other file that people would be interested in. The good thing about Aweber is that you can have downloads automatically sent to anyone that subscribes.

By this point, you should have a few people that took the bait, and have now signed up to your newsletter. Now, you simply need to send out what is called a “Blog Broadcast” to your newsletter readers to get them actively counted in your Feedburner RSS count. This is a pretty simple step that goes under-utilized despite the obvious benefits. So make sure you are in on it!

Bottom Line: You can literally double your RSS feed count with an “opt-in” list that ties in directly with your blog. Imagine if you had 500 readers and all of them signed up to your newsletter (not a stretch of the imagination). You could convert all these newsletter readers into active subscribers and reach the 1,000 level the next day! Not bad for a few extra bucks a month and an hour of work setting up the “Opt In” landing page, eh?

-The Net Fool

Top WordPress Plugins For Every Type of Blog - The Best of the Best!

I’ve seen a few posts around the blogosphere that offer up lists of ten, twenty or thirty WordPress plugins that they claim are essential for every blog. The bottom line is that the more plugins you have, the slower your website will become. We want a quick and efficient blog, so sometimes it’s better to deal with simplicity than shiny extras. That being said, I wanted to make a list that broke things down into category-intensive labels… plugins that you will want to have if you have a certain type of blog.

Dump the large lists of WordPress plugins and focus on the essentials. Sure, there are some awesome plugins that you should install on any blog you ever own… but there are plenty of plugins that work better if you have a photo blog, a stock market blog or even a collection of essays. So without further ado, here are my personal “Top Ten WordPress Plugins That You Need,” followed by a few high-caliber plugins that you should install for various niche blogs.

The Top Ten WordPress Plugins That You Need!
You might be writing about politics, or you might be writing about animals… regardless, you are going to want to install all of the following plugins to boost your reader participation, increase traffic and boost your blog to the top of the rankings.

1. Akismet
Naturally, the self-proclaimed “king” of spam catching has to be your number one plugin. I’ve caught about 15,000 spam comments on theNetFool.com with this plugin and absolutely love the fact that it is catching about 95% of the junk that comes through. Best of all… it’s completely free to obtain a license!

2. All In One SEO Pack
If you are trying to boost your Google Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERPs), it’s important to optimize your entire website so that it is better received by major search engines and news agencies. Make this a priority. WordPress by default is terribly organized, so set up AIO and max out your traffic.

3. Google XML Sitemaps
I’m a big proponent of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Google absolutely gobbles up websites that make an updated “sitemap” available. The Google XML Sitemaps plugin does this for you, so you’ll have everything ready to go.

4. Brian’s Threaded Comments
Threaded Comments is the most recent plugin that I have installed, and I couldn’t be more pleased. This adds the functionality of having your guests respond and interact on a whole new level in the comment area. By embedding “replies” inside of the original comments, we no longer have to sort through a laundry list of comments to read a conversation.

5. Subscribe Remind
Want to boost your RSS subscriber numbers? Sometimes, this really is as simple as a quick reminder. Subscribe Remind is my favorite plugin to add a short plug at the bottom of each post… asking for readers to subscribe to your feed. A simple WordPress plugin with a huge implication on your traffic.

6. WWW Redirect
Did you know that having people link to your site differently (e.g. “http://yoursite” v. “http://www.yoursite”) is killing your traffic and rankings? WWW Redirect changes everything automatically to “www.” format with no need to muck around in your .htaccess file. This is a no-brainer!

7. CommentLuv
Give your readers an incentive to comment on your blog! CommentLuv really spreads the link love around, and will allow you to reward every comment with a fresh link back to their latest blog post. This is a win-win situation that will encourage more comments than ever before.

8. Comment Relish
Too many people ask me how I generate that nice email that goes out the first time you comment on theNetFool.com. I have used Comment Relish to mail out an automatic “welcome” letter on every blog I’ve ever owned, and you can even ask them to subscribe to make things more useful. It’s completely automatic after you set it up, and your users will thank you.

9. Top Commentators
Going with the theme, having a blog where people are commenting is a powerful tool. Since we want to leverage our reader base to the best of our ability, the Top Commentators plugin will gift your shining stars with a free link back to their blogs if they are among the most active.

10. ShareThis or Sociable (Social Media Networking)
Social Media has exploded as a reliable and fast-paced source of traffic and reputation for many blogs. Use either ShareThis or Sociable (both are great) to add a quick link on the bottom of every blog post/page so that people can Digg/Stumble/Reddit/etc. your best material with better accuracy.

This list is ordered to the best of my ability, and I really feel like I hit on all of the areas that you will want to optimize and add features to on your own blog. I use all of the following on The Net Fool dot com, and have never thought twice as they all add something unique.

Top Five Finance Blog Plugins
Got a financial blogsite? You probably would love to have some streaming news on the market and stock quotes in a prominent position of your website. Try out these WordPress-compatible plugins to increase the functionality of your blog!

1. Embedded Stock Data
This plugin is my absolute favorite overall, very smart. Chances are, if you are writing with a financial slant, you are going to at least mention a few publicly traded companies here and there. With Embedded Stock Data, you can embed the stock price and some more information right in your posts!

2. Stock Quote Sidebar
Research shows that a majority of the American public has money invested in the stock market in 2008, so the odds are strong that you have at least a few thousand invested in publicly traded stocks. Keep track of your performance and let your viewers know how you are doing with Stock Quote Sidebar!

3. Stock Quote Tooltip
Similar to the Embedded Stock Data plugin, Stock Quote Tooltip creates an awesome mouseover effect that will reveal a daily stock chart of any company that appears in your blog posts. It’s lightweight and very easy to set up.

4. Stock Symbol Plugin
Despite a slight lack in support, SaneBull is my favorite “tooltip” (mouseover) stock market plugin because of the beautiful streaming data that it pulls every time you mention a stock in your posts. Try it out and see for yourself!

5. Yahoo Finance Badge
Yahoo has come up with a great sidebar widget to stick in your financial blog anywhere you want. Called the “Badge” by nature, Yahoo’s new tool let’s you track your portfolio live, and you can even grab the latest news headlines and have them displayed on your website.

Top Five Community & Multi-Author Blog Plugins
Lot’s of websites nowadays are run on a community basis. With WordPress so easy to use, many people have multiple authors feeding articles into the website. Let’s have a look at some of the plugins that make this functionality more worth your while.

1. Role Manager
This is one of the best kept secrets in WordPress plugins, and is definitely in my personal top five. If you have multiple authors on your blog, you can use Role Manager to change specific capabilities on a user-to-user basis… so you can give control to your best writers in a more effective and safe way.

2. Get Author Profile
One of the best functions of WordPress is that it allows you to set up user profiles for each author. But this is no good if nobody can see it! Use the Get Author Profile plugin and get your writers’ information put into the spotlight.

3. Profile Pics Plugin
If you have multiple writers, it looks much neater to allow each to submit their own image for you to list alongside their posts. Profile Pics is the plugin for you! Use this simple add-on to enhance the way each post looks when published.

4. Future Posts Calender
Ever scheduled a post into the future but weren’t really sure when you wanted it to launch? Use the Future Posts Calender to manage and organize your posts in order to have everything go public at exactly the right time. This one is new to me, and absolutely brilliant!

5. Our To-do List Plugin
What if you have multiple authors, but can’t always communicate? Out To-do List lets you put up a public chalkboard to write down and designate tasks throughout the week so everyone is on the same page. This brings a whole new level to your administrative backend!

Top Five “For-Profit” Blog Plugins
Are you just in it for the money? No need to be shy, we all like a little revenue to keep us motivated to write… so here are the best five monetization plugins to get your advertisements pulling in more cash than ever before.

1. OIO Publisher
If you are looking for your end-all solution to manage, sell and promote advertising on your website… look no further than OIO Publisher. At $37, it’s the best buy that I have ever made and you will make the initial investment back 100% in no time!

2. Adsense Manager
I don’t use this plugin because I no longer have an AdSense account. However, the Adsense Manager is known far and wide as the best Google Adsense ad management system for WordPress blogs.

3. WP-Amazon
If you’ve ever wanted to link to a book, movie or product relative to your post, you probably should be using WP-Amazon to pull live links from Amazon that display professionally where you want.

4. PayPal Donate
One of the more simple ways to make money on your blog is to ask for it. Add a PayPal donation button to your blog with ease with the PayPal Donate plugin made for WordPress.

5. AdRotator
AdRotator is the best system that I’ve come across other than WordPress for installing different ad slots around your website so that you can list your advertisements in the most effective places possible.

Top Writing and Document-Intensive Blog Plugins
Many blogs nowadays focus on writing. With a lot of professionals publishing new websites to write on, many of these are very article-intensive and a lot of people write things like newspapers, poetry and case studies. Let’s pick the best for these blogs!

1. WP-Print
As simple as it sounds, WP-Print adds the function to allow your readers to print each article straight from your blog in an optimized format. This one is simple, but very effective, and is one of my favorites.

2. Post2PDF
If you can’t have it in printed version, Adobe reader (.pdf) files have started to become the new standard in reading technology. Give your visitors the chance to grab posts in .pdf format with Post2PDF!

3. ThinkFree Document Viewer
Many of us have important documents to distribute or personal works that we want to reveal on the internet. ThinkFree Document Viewer solves this problem and allows you to let your viewers check out what you have uploaded much easier.

4. Blurb Book Publisher
Did you know that you can mold all of your articles into an actual book format? With the Blurb plugin you can publish everything quite easily, making this one heck of an addition.

5. AttachFiles
It’s not easy to list files you have available for your users to download if you are running a blog. AttachFiles solves this problem and let’s you provide incomers with a quick link to the files you have offered.

Top Image and Photo Blog Plugins
Photographers are some of the most influential bloggers of our time, and many blogs like to recount personal episodes with the use of images on their websites. Check out some of the best image plugins for keeping track of it all.

1. Image Manager
This is by far the number one plugin for getting your images up in your blog posts and articles every day. With more features to account for, you’ve got to check out what Image Manager has to offer.

2. Batch Image Uploader
If you’ve ever used the WordPress image uploader, it can really be a pain if you need multiple images at once. The Batch Image Uploader plugin solves this issue.

3. iMax Width
Many of the images you will use exceed the width of the content area. iMax Width fixes this forever by establishing some simple resizing rules that will get everything fitting where it needs to be, saving your layout the horror.

4. ThickBox
Once of the best Web 2.0 effects is having images load up in a nice browser-centered overlay in a zoomed-in view. Don’t know what I mean? Check out ThickBox for one cool effect.

5. Yet Another Photoblog
Photographers and photobloggers rejoice with YAPB, one of the best photo-blogging WordPress plugins available. Organize your images in a whole new way.

Whew! Those sure were a lot of targeted and reliable plugins, eh? My suggestion would be to use no more than 15 of these… meaning the ten must-have’s and five from one of the lists depending on how your blog is focused. WordPress plugins are great, but they can slow you down if you have too many. Still, some are simple too cool to pass up… here’s to the great developers that gift us with these awesome additions!

-The Net Fool

The 13 Deadly (SEO) Sins - Common Mistakes In Search Engine Optimization

The following is a guest post that was written by Caden Grant, who blogs about making money at CadenGrant.com. Caden is a fresh face in the MMO world… check him out!

Search engine optimization is very important for any blog right? The better your blog is optimized for search engines, the more traffic you get. The more traffic you get, the more money you make. There is a lot to learn about search engine optimization. Many bloggers make simple mistakes… so I’ve made a list of the most common search engine optimization mistakes most people make. Try to avoid these mistakes and it should help you out.

1. Not updating and maintaining

This is very important. Most successful bloggers or website owners do this, but if they don’t it will affect their ranking. If you don’t keep up to date with the new algorithms of search engines, your page will eventually drop in the rankings. Some people think that after optimizing their website, they’re done forever. Well, this isn’t true. Try to always update your web page and work on your search engine optimization. As far as updating and keeping up with the competition, it’s also important to update your content. Google likes updated content and will make your page rank better in the SERPs.

2. Wasting your time on the meta tags

This is another common one. People think that if you get your meta description and keywords tag right, it will help optimize your site to perform well in the search engines. Well, this also isn’t true. Nowadays, meta tags don’t really help at all, they’re mostly a thing of the past. Now, you don’t even need the meta keywords tag as it doesn’t have any effect on your rankings. Although, the meta description tag does come up as the description for your website in Google.

3. Not minimizing duplicate content

Duplicate content mostly refers to blocks of content on websites that match other parts of content on your website. Some examples are discussion boards like vBulletin that can show the regular version of a post and then a different version, WordPress, printer-friendly pages, etc. Some people will use duplicate content to try to gain more traffic from search engines, but it’s not necessarily good for your users… or even yourself. Google will probably think you’re trying to deceive your users, and it will hurt your search engine rankings or cause in complete removal in certain search engines. You can try to minimize duplicate content in a few ways.

1. You can tell the search engines to block certain pages through your robots.txt file.
2. Use a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect, (Permanent Redirect), will redirect your users and search engine spiders to the actual page that should be displayed. (Do this in your .htaccess file, look up 301 redirects)

4. Canonicalization Issues

Canonicalization is a term that means you can get to your website through different urls like for instance www.yoururlhere.com and yoururlhere.com and someotherurl.com. Decide on the link you want and use it. You can use Google webmaster tools to tell it which URL you prefer to be indexed and Google will use that link for future crawls. Another way to do this is in your .htaccess file. Use this code:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Replace it with your link details of course, then save it and upload it. That’s it!

5. Not using the HTML attribute rel=”nofollow”

As Wikipedia states: nofollow is an HTML attribute value used to instruct some search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index. It is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing “spamdexing” from occurring. NoFollow is not meant for blocking content or preventing it from being indexed, but instead is meant for telling the search engines to not affect the pages PageRank. For instance, the “About Us”, “Contact Us”, “FAQ”, “Privacy Policy”, etc aren’t really important enough to have a PageRank.

6. Not using relevant keywords when linking internally

Try not to use the words like ‘click here’ or ‘here’ or anything similar when linking to posts or something within your website. Try to use keyword relevant links. Like if I was linking to 10 Ways to Make Money Blogging, I wouldn’t link to it saying “Click here.” Instead I would link to it using the words 10 Ways to Make Money Blogging.

7. Ignoring the title tag

The title tag of your website in the heading of your code is very important as it comes up in the search engines for the hyperlink to your website. Use relevant keywords related to your site in the title of your tag. If your website is about making money online, include those words in the title of your Web page.

8. Using JavaScript menus

JavaScript menus aren’t necessarily bad… but just know that search engine spiders cannot read JavaScript. So, if you can, try to stay away from them altogether.

9. Letting pages get indexed that shouldn’t be

There are certain pages on websites that shouldn’t be indexed in search engines. For instance, printer-only versions of web pages, or just content-less pages with no use to the user. Go to Google and use the site:link.com/page.php or whatever to check and see if certain pages that should not be indexed are indexed. If you find pages that shouldn’t be there, you can tell the search engines to block them using the meta robots tag in the heading of your website and the robots.txt file.

10. Not using SEO friendly URLS

Not using SEO friendly URLS is also another mistake bloggers make. For instance, if you have the link http://www.linkhere.com/page.php?id=3&blahblah=computercases it’s not very friendly to the search engines. What would be a better option is something like http://www.linkhere.com/computercases/ or something similar. In wordpress you have the option to change your “permalink” so that it’s more SEO friendly. It should be under the permalinks option in your settings. Choose custom structure and put /%postname% in the field.

11. Using flash without HTML

Flash might look good but it’s not good for the search engines. Search engine spiders can’t read flash (yet). So either try to stay away from flash or as an alternative create an HTML version of the web page and optimize it.

12. Images as headlines

Some people think that images do better as headlines but it’s really better to use h1, h2, h3 and so on for headings. Images are good but text is great. Search engines love text. Although, be sure to use the alt=”" attribute when using an image to describe what the image is.

13. Lack of keywords in content

To rank for certain keywords, of course you have to have keywords in your content. Put them where necessary. Putting them in heading tags or in bold is really good. Just try not to make it look spammy. Write for people not for search engines.

So there you have it. 13 common mistakes most bloggers make when blogging. If you try to avoid these problems, they should help you in optimizing your own blog for success!

-Caden Grant

Capitalizing on the Top Ten Consumer Trends of 2009

It isn’t every day that you get an spam email in your inbox… that is actually useful. When I sift through my email inbox, I typically delete the random newsletter items that come in from the likes of Best Buy and Wal-mart. However, earlier this month I got one of the most clever inbox items from one company that DID have a good Christmas retail season… Amazon.com!

Is it possible to use a message to your advantage, that was only sent out to try and get you to buy something? I thought that it was pretty amusing that Amazon.com would put out a newsletter with the “Top New Year’s Resolutions.” Essentially, this was a top ten list that went out to get consumers to buy into the latest fads that will drive 2009. For affiliate marketers, this is a virtual gold mine of information from the people that know best. Now, we can use what was once a spam message to bring in tons of affiliate marketing cash down the road.

The Top Ten Consumer Trends of 2009

I want to take this post to offer examples of how you can use a “top ten” listing in your favor to predict trends and stay ahead of the curve in affiliate marketing. There are many ways to have success in the internet marketing realm, and having the most demanded product before anyone else is a great start. Here are some trends, as predicted by Amazon.com, that should drive the consumer sector over the next year. You can follow along with the actual excerpt on the left-hand side.

1. Lose Weight
Weight loss is going to continue to be a big trend over the next year or so (at minimum), so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try out some offers here. The consumer brand is discouraging anything with sugar in it, so the fitness trend probably won’t be stopping any time soon. Try your hand at some offers in the “Diet” or “Weight Loss” niche.

2. Get Your Finances in Order
It’s tax season AND we are in a recession… sounds like a pretty good time for you to cash in on the financial services industry. I would suggest sticking to names like “Quicken” and “TaxCut” to rake in money from people filing taxes this spring. Also, you could look into the “Mortgage” or other loan niche for families looking for help online.

3. Go Greener
Many affiliate networks now have entire portions of their websites devoted to the “Green” theme that has hit the nation. You can promote products like green tea, or even the “health” realm. It’s easy to go green, and you can really promote this one many ways.

4. Curb Your Vices
Many people seek out “Self-Help” related products… looking for help to quit smoking, drinking, gambling or just bad habits. I would actually recommend using the Amazon Partner Network to promote their own self-help books, rather than using a standard affiliate network.

5. Get In Shape
Fitness and health are HUGE areas to be exploited now. Plus, many consumers have been drawn into the “Yoga” niche… and there are certainly a ton of products that can be used here. Additionally, the “Diet” area still applies to those looking to get in shape… since everyone is a sucker for a shortcut. Try making a fitness blog to promote these!

6. Relax More
This is a trend that I thought was surprising, but could definitely see picking up traction in a highly stressful world. You could use “Yoga” for this, but an even better idea might be to use actual products from the Amazon Partner Network or seek out some kind of “Music” store that specializes in classical, jazz or alternative songs.

7. Pursue a New Career
The job market is rough, so people are looking to improve themselves. You can actually create entire sites nowadays by using a “Job Board” on your website. An easier path might be to look into the “Financial” niche or try your hand at “Business Opportunities” (frequently “Biz Opps”).

8. Upgrade Your Technology
People like to have the latest gadgets and gizmos, so you can mark up a gain on this one by turning your focus to “Electronics,” “Entertainment” and even “Retail.” Cable networks like the Disk Network are hot right now, so look into that option!

9. Organize and Optimize
From file folders to feng shui, and everything in between… people love to feel organized and on top of their game. Again, this will tie into the “Tax services” niche very well right now, and “Home Related” might be the perfect fit for the more year-round trade.

10. Start a New Hobby
People always like to branch out and find a new hobby of their liking. In this area, it could be fun to tap into “Gardening”… as the barriers to entry are pretty low in my opinion. Additionally, “Travel” and “Sports” can be excellent hobbies that people will trend toward i ntheir spare time (which we have a lot of right now).

Bottom Line: When people “resolve” to do something, they will more than typically be planning on the long haul. Because of this, January through March is an excellent time to catch people that buy products to help them through their resolutions. After all, there’s nothing like having an expense on the books to motivate you to get going!

-The Net Fool